# Indian reactions to the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony


![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/2747250382_1d21e64e30_m.jpg)I
recently left Varanasi for New Delhi, and I am staying in the crazy and
dirty backpacker ghetto called Pahar Ganj, conveniently located behind
the main train station. Luckily, my hotel has a TV (with some 80
channels), and thus I was able to catch the live broadcast of the
opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. I am usually not a huge
olympics, or sports fan, but given my long connection to China, and how
much I have been hearing about the olympics from my Chinese friends -
ever since I was there first in 2001 - I was quite interested in how it
would turn out.

In addition, watching it on Indian TV gave me an opportunity to listen
to the Indian commentators and see how the olympics, and China, were
perceived here. In fact, I kept switching back and forth between three
different English language channels (all Indian) - one was CNN IBN, one
was Time Now I think, and there was a third on, perhaps NDTV.

![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2746417883_b18751c8c7_m.jpg)**Prelude**

In the run up to the Olympics, much of the newspaper coverage has been
focused on the fact that India’s contingent is quite small, and that
India cannot be expected to win many medals. In fact, I think they have
only won 16 golds in all the Olympics together. There was also a row
about who would get to accompany the athletes, with some having their
parents going with them, and others not even getting a space for their
coach (reminded me a bit of the negotiations in Chak De).

One of those “can only happen in India” moments was when the
[weightlifter Monika Devi was expelled for testing positive on a dope
test](http://www.sinlung.com/?p=3460). Manipur is a province tucked away
near Cambodia, with a people that looks more East-Asian than
South-Asian, and they decided that this had all been some kind of
conspiracy from “mainland India” to exclude Manipur from the Olympics.
Subsequently a bandh - general strike - was declared for 24 hours in the
entire province, effigies were burnt, demonstrations ensued in which at
least five people were hurt, etc. In the end Monika was cleared to go,
but this was too late to have her enter the competition (I suppose the
fact that she was subsequently cleared only deepens the Manipuri belief
in a grand conspiracy).

In general, Indians seem far too eager to block railway lines, call for
general strikes, and burn effigies. Another example from the last few
days was when [Kannada groups blocked all the railway lines going to
Tamil Nadu](http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=461197&sid=REG). The
reason was that Kannada and Telugu were about to be awarded “classical
language” status by the Indian government (which would mean more support
for language preservation and development). Apparently the Kannada
groups believed that Tamil Nadu (which posits itself as home of the
original classical Dravidian language) was trying to block this
appointment, and thus shut down traffic. But back to the Olympics…

**Extremely positive**

Generally, the commentators were extremely positive to the opening
ceremony. Especially one of the commentators, I think on Time Now, was a
talking machine. He seemed to be trying to break some kind of record, as
he gushed out superlatives, the mother of all ceremonies, amazing,
spectacular, cannot believe my own eyes… All the channels also spent a
lot of energy on the Indian team when they entered, re-running for 20
minutes the one minute footage of the ragtag team entering, and Sonia
Gandhi waving to them. The focus, however, was quite different. Our
exuberant commentator was over himself in appreciation, talking about
how excited the Indian’s looked, the patriotism that formerly beamed out
of their eyes, and the smile on Sonia Gandhi’s lips that had not been
seen for so long.

![](http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060317/s3.jpg)The other channel,
I believe CNN IBN, was however horrified by the fact that while the men
had been wearing nice traditional Indian garb, only one of the women
wore a sari, while the others wore training jackets and pants. In
addition, about half the Indian team had digital cameras and were busy
filming the audience while walking out, prompting some comments that
they looked like a bunch of tourists (in all fairness, most of the other
delegations did the same thing).

This “dress disaster” prompted much discussion, and in the newspaper it
was later revealed that [the girls had come straight from practice and
not had time to
change](http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEE20080809170621&Page=E&Title=Olympics+2008&Topic=0)
(one wonders if they hadn’t been told about the Opening Ceremony).
However, evil tongues suggest that the saris were not delivered in time,
or that the athletes were unhappy about the color and quality of the
fabric. We shall never know.

**Could India do it?**

One of the topics raised frequently by all the commentators, who were
awed by the organization and infrastructure in Beijing, was “could India
host the Olympics?”. Many frankly said no, stating that India couldn’t
put on a tenth of this Opening Ceremony, and discussing the
infrastructure in Delhi as extremely poor. However, the country will
host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, and this was seen as an important
stepping stone. Apparently about 50 officials from India were in Beijing
trying to learn from the organization of the games.

Stian

Thanks to[](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathy_zhuang/)**[..· ✈Katherina
➳·..](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathy_zhuang/)**for the two first
pictures.**\
**